Question of the day: Has the use of cargo containers this week at Muskegon's beach changed your mind? (poll)

MUSKEGON, MI – Well Muskegon, now you’ve seen one type of cargo-container construction, what do you think?

The beach volleyball event Tuesday at Pere Marquette Park for a Grand Rapids-area high school player dealing with bone cancer allowed the whole community to see what cargo containers are all about. Sixteen of the steel structures were quickly put up to provide a “stage” for the beach event and nearly as quickly taken away.

That flexibility and portability might lessen some fears of the cargo containers being suggested for the artisan and food outlets planned for the Shoreline Market, which city planners have given initial approval for on the Morris Street parking lot in downtown Muskegon.

But the look of the cargo containers, stacked up next to Lake Michigan this week, might give others concern. The containers used on the beach were not improved or upgraded as they could be for commercial retail use.

Shoreline Market developers from Urban Renaissance Group would argue that cargo containers can be made to be upscale such as their use in a Starbucks coffee outlet in Seattle.

So Muskegon, after seeing cargo construction on Pere Marquette Beach, what do you think? Has that up-close look at the containers given you a more favorable impression, less favorable or not changed your mind?